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Richmond Hill shortstop Chaise Parker tags out Greenbrier's Conner Hoover on a pickoff play in the third inning Saturday.

Richmond Hill had its chances Saturday afternoon in game three of a GHSA Class AAAAA first-round playoff series, but Greenbrier starting pitcher Clint Hardy made enough pitches when he had to, wiggling out of several jams and leading the Wolfpack past the Wildcats 6-2 to propel his team to the second round.

Greenbrier (18-7), the No. 4 seed out of Region 2-AAAAA, will now face Region 4 No. 2 McIntosh on Wednesday, while the Region 3 champion Wildcats’ season ended at 14-14 overall.

“We played well all series,” said Richmond Hill coach Stacy Bennett, whose team lost the series opener 12-3 on Friday afternoon before evening the set with a 5-4 victory in the nightcap. “We had a couple of mishaps in a couple of crucial situations, and this time of the year, you can’t make those mistakes. We were able to put pressure on (Greenbrier) today and had some chances; we just didn’t execute enough.”

The Wildcats had their best opportunity of the game against Hardy in the bottom of the sixth inning. With his team down 4-1, Peyton Carter led off with a sharp single to left, and after Dominic Montalto drew a four-pitch walk, pinch-hitter Dallas Daniel placed a perfect bunt in between first base and the pitcher’s mound to load the bases with no one out. With one out, Zach Balcomb walked to bring home Carter and cut the lead to 4-2, but Hardy recovered, snagging a soft popup off the bat of Chaise Parker and getting Michael Teston to ground out to second and end the inning.

“As a coach, you hope you can get into that kind of situation at least once a game, and we did more than once today; we just didn’t execute,” Bennett said. “That’s part of the game. There have been times this year when we’ve gotten it done and other times when we didn’t. Hats off to the pitcher there; he’s just a heck of a player.”

Hardy immediately made the Wildcats pay for that missed chance in the top of the seventh, drilling a Chandler Newman offering over the left field fence to put Greenbrier back up by three. The Wolfpack scratched across another run in the frame when Conner Hoover followed Hardy’s blast with a walk, moved to third on a Taylor Glover single and scored on Adam Sasser’s sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 6-2.

Hardy took things from there, surrendering only a two-out single by Carter in the seventh before getting Montalto to pop out to Sasser at first and end the game.

“He’s just good,” Bennett said of the senior right-hander Hardy, who allowed six hits, walked five, hit one and struck out seven. “He’s a senior, he’s been in this situation before, and he went out and did his job.”

Greenbrier, last season’s Class AAAA runner-up and winners of five state championships the last 16 years, scored what turned out to be all the runs it would need in the first with a three-spot off of Wildcat starter Brian Eichorn. Chris Michals hit a two-run single, and Knox Marchman followed suit with an RBI basehit. Chandler Newman worked the final six innings in relief for Richmond Hill.

“We’re proud of the job Chandler did out there keeping us in it,” Bennett said. “We made some plays defensively to control some damage, and that helped us out a lot.”

The Wildcats scored their only other run in the third when Peyton Carter reached on a bases-loaded error to cut the Wolfpack’s advantage down to 3-1. But Hardy got some critical help from his defense when second baseman Ty Snipes went up the ladder to snag a liner off the bat of Montalto and flipped over to Hoover at short to double off Peraldo and end the inning.

“We accomplished a lot of great things this year,” said Bennett, whose Wildcats won the first region championship in program history. “I’m most proud of our seniors. They’ve done a heck of a job of leading this team this year and setting a good example for the younger kids. We’re excited for the summer and the future of this program.”